Latitude E7240 and E7440

Seems there's still some card problem > http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19664521
Am staying on 15.

 

Folks, as a new E7240 owner, having searched, I cannot find out whether it supports SDXC cards and to what capacity. Can anyone advise please? If only SDHC, what is the capacity limit?

Many thanks.

 

The specifications at the back of the Owner's Manual includes:

More details of SD 4.0 here.

John

 

Interesting John. From my brief read then, SD 4.0 enables support for SDXC UHS - II cards up to 312 mb/s. Therefore, as I am in the UK, something like this should work ok...

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDXC/Lexar/Lexar-256GB-Lexar-Professional-1000x-SD-(SDXC)-Card-UHS-II-U3---150MB_s

or

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDXC/Lexa...onal-2000x-SD-(SDXC)-Card-UHS-II-U3---300MB_s

Anyone had any experience of these cards and their reliability?

Thanks.

 

What are you planning to use the card for? The sequential read speed might be very good but the write speed is, most likely, much lower.

FYI I attach the CrystalDiskMark results for this 64GB Sandisk microSD card which claims 48MB/s but, surprisingly, has about double that for the sequential read speed when tested in the card slot of my Latitude E7450. Sequential write speed is about 14MB/s and the write speeds for 512k and smaller blocks are underwhelming.


If you want removable storage with good read and write performance then consider a USB 3.0 flash drive. However, find a good one of these needs some research. The best in my collection is the Sandisk Extreme (250MB/s sequential read, 200MB/s sequential write) but the Sandisk Ultra Flair also offers good performance (150MB/s / 90MBs) and is easier on the wallet and more compact.


John

 

Thanks John, you covered both eventualities in one post there!

I replaced the 128gb LiteOn ssd with a 256gb Samsung 850 Evo but still want some additional storage for music and photos without the need to plug in an external USB device. I am not sure but I suspect I am likely to want good read speed, in the main, so the Sandisk SDXC sd card would probably be ideal.

Many thanks.

Jonathan.

P.S. This looks interesting having just searched for an SD card! http://www.mymemory.co.uk/USB-Flash...128GB-Ultra-Fit-USB-3.0-Flash-Drive---130MB_s

 

Any of them should be OK if your primary requirement is for reading.

The SD card won't block a USB port while the Ultra Fit would be a good choice if you are able / willing to sacrifice a USB port. If you want something removable then the Ultra Flair would be easier to find in your bag. You can put it on a short lanyard to make it easier to find.

John

 

I got the information from technical support that the BIOS version A18 will fix memory card reader and a new bios has come out in January.

 

I just got an E7240 with i5-4300U, 256GB SSD and the regular 1366x768 screen for $314. Here are my first impressions:

It was supposedly used, but it seems in brand new condition to me. So far my first impressions are quite positive. The TN screen is nowhere near as bad as I had originally thought. Yes the viewing angles are crap as usual, but the color reproduction is nowhere near as bad as many other TN laptop panels I have seen. The resolution is also not much of a hinderance because of the size of the screen. 1080p in windows is way too dense and I hate scaling. The big downside is obviously that WXGA screens are hard to use for multitasking. IMO a 1600x900 screen would have been perefect for this screen size. I don't care about touch, and I don't want to spend nearly $200 USD for a resolution that's excessive at this screen size.

As for the keyboard, even though I just got this laptop I can type incredibly fast on it. I average around 106 WPM, which is a lot higher than the usual 85 or so I get on laptop keyboards. The key travel is perfect. Not too shallow like many ultrabooks, and not deep enough to make typing slow. I don't feel or see any flex when typing, and the keyboard is relatively quiet.

The touchpad is alright, I like the deep clicking when using the two buttons and the fact that it doesn't make an annoying clicking sound. I would however have liked to see a glass touchpad akin to the newer HP elitebooks and the apple laptops. Glass touchpads won't end up with a circular wear pattern after a few years of use, and also feel nicer to the touch.

The speakers are VERY impressive considering this is a business laptop and its small size. Obviously low bass notes are non-existent, but that's an issue with any laptop speakers due to the size.

As far as overall build quality, the laptop does feel very solid, and I like having an aluminum lid but plastic inside. The plastic bottom is especially nice, because it allows you to actually use the machine as a LAPtop without barbecuing your tighs. Same with the vents on the left side instead of the back. Definitely better for confined spaces where you might have your legs or something behind the computer.

So far I am incredibly happy with this laptop with this laptop, its pretty much exactly what I was looking for. $300 for a mint haswell core i5 business laptop, including a 256GB SSD is amazing.

Next upgrade I'll be looking to do is increasing the RAM to 12GB by adding an 8GB DDR3L stick.

PS: Im having an issue with the laptop battery basically not charging at all. It shows up as being at 1% and stays that way. The battery health is at 97%. The laptop powers off imediatly when it is disconnected because the laptop reads it as having 1%. If nobody has a solution, please let me know, otherwise I will contact the seller.












Right now I'm running ubuntu because I have yet to get a windows license, and everything seems to be working fine.

 

Check in the BIOS if there is any option to disable battery charging.

John